Official Xbox One Release Date is on November 22, 2013

For years now, gamers and the media have speculated upon the release dates and before that, the unveilings, of the long-awaited successors to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – consoles that represent the longest and most successful life cycle of gaming consoles. Sony took the first step, announcing the PS4 in February with a “holiday 2013″ release date, aiming to not fall behind Microsoft as they did years ago when the PS3 released a full year after its primary competitor.

In May, Microsoft unveiled its own next-gen hardware – the Xbox One – later confirming a slightly more specific launch window of November 2013. At Germany’s Gamescom event in August Sony officially revealed that the PS4 would be hitting store shelves on November 15, 2013, and a rumored leaked document suggested the Xbox One would release one week earlier on November 8, 2013. We now know it’s actually releasing a week after the PS4.

That is, in North America. Europe doesn’t get the PS4 until November 29th, meaning Xbox One (and its Day One bundle for FIFA 14) actually comes out first in the region.

We can thank Pepsi for giving us the more accurate timing info when their Xbox One contest hinted at a “late November” release and this morning, Yusuf Mehdi, Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Business for Microsoft’s Xbox division, took to his official blog to confirm that the Xbox One is releasing on November 22, 2013.

“…we’re now in a position to share that Xbox One will be available on November 22, 2013 in all 13 of our initial launch markets — Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and USA. Many more markets will follow in 2014.

We are humbled and gratified by the tremendous interest in Xbox One from game fans everywhere. We sold out of our pre-order supply faster than at any other time in our history and we are on path to have the biggest launch of an Xbox ever. We look forward to celebrating with millions and millions of gamers this holiday.”

Tech enthusiasts interested in the specific tech specs and console power comparisons will be happy to hear that with the Xbox One release date comes confirmation that it’s going to ship with a faster CPU.

“I am also pleased to confirm that the development team has increased the CPU from 1.6GHZ to 1.75GHZ, roughly a 10 percent increase in CPU performance. This is on top of the 6% increase we previously announced for the GPU.”

What’s most fitting about Microsoft choosing November 22 is the fact that the Xbox 360 released on the very same day back in 2005. It’s an anniversary! Players who’ve yet to pre-order but still want to, should do so now since Microsoft has added a limited number of additional Xbox One Day One consoles for pre-order. You can do so here while supplies last.

Let me know on Twitter @rob_keyes which next-gen console you plan to get!

your the one who added ps4 in to your article and I didn’t mean this write is between ps4 and xbox. I meant whenever you write an article about xbox it’s how the xbox is so great. when you write about ps4 or wii it’s “meh”. just telling it how it is. honestly, I’m hoping they both do well because, while they keep trying to 1up each other, we benefit from it with better games.

Since I don’t believe you read the content – you can’t by what you said – I’ll also point out that even this article doesn’t say anything about one console being good or bad, AND doesn’t make any comparisons. It just lays out the dates but you found a way to attack still…

Edit: Darn, just what I thought. I went through your previous comments on the site. There are 10 in total and literally 9 attack our writers and other readers. I see the issue now.

dbrasco 1 year ago

yep your right. if I was attacking without provocation then, I apologize. but, there are times I was attacking a commenter that had attacked another. I guess to me, it sounded more like, “read between the lines” advertising. but, i’m no professional judge on writing, even when I act like I am. so, what would I know about it. but, I do understand human condition and character defects. character defects isn’t bad like it sounds, it’s when we rationalize, manipulate or minimize a given situation. so…really it’s just part of being human. the reason why i’m mentioning this is because, some of the things we buy and do are personal to us like gaming…I mean, who wants to feel like they forked out there hard earned money for the wrong console. I think that’s why we can get so defensive, because we’re also trying to convince ourselves we got the right one. it comes out when we talk about it or when we write about it. but, regardless still doesn’t mean a person shouldn’t recognize when to apologize. sorry for being a dick

Martin 1 year ago

In fact it’s my bad, I sould not have bring the subject on this article. But I assure you my question was legit. :p

Haha, well obviously there are a TON of reasons to buy either based on preferences, even the controller and interface alone are big factors.

In the current-gen, multiplatform shooters have larger player counts on Live and it’s that console used primarily for eSports tournaments with shooters (shooters are the best-selling genre). For the next-gen, with Microsoft changing seemingly all of their policies (I can’t keep track), their online services, digital games, indie policies, etc. are all mostly the same, so it’s exclusive games and content that are going to be a factor.

What I’m seeing are a lot of awesome free-to-play titles coming to PS4 so I know me (and probably a lot of PC gamers) will jump in for that. I’m a big fan of Warframe and War Thunder and I know CCP is definitely going to bring their games (EVE: Valkyrie!!!).

Kinect is the best-selling and most supported motion controller to date, but if that PS4 headset is true, that’s what I want most. Oculus Rift was the most next-gen thing I saw at E3 so if their own headset is that or better, that’s an epic win.

Anyone who asks why someone would buy a console can ask the same abou the other… or… I hate to say it… they probably objectively don’t like many video games.